This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

This is a very delightful song from the comedy film EK DO TEEN-1953. The song is sung by Promodini Desai, Asha Bhosle, Meenal Wagh and others. I have written earlier on Promodini Desai on 8-10-2012, in the series on ‘less known singers (Desai sisters) and about Meenal Wagh, as comments on 4-5-2012, on this Blog.
Branding of an artiste is very common in Film Industry. Accordingly, after the phenomenal success of songs from EK THI LADKI-1949, Music Director Vinod was branded as a composer for comedy films and only such films came to him. It also happened that Roop K Shorey, for whose films,Vinod was a fixture,made mostly comedy films. Thus the branding was confirmed.

Ofcourse he had no choice but to do such films as they came to him. Actually Vinod was a very sensitive composer and whenever there was an opportunity, he composed some really melodious, serious and sentimental songs too. However majority of his songs had to be suitable to the genre of films he was getting, i.e. comedy films.

His songs had not only melody but also a foot tapping rhythm. Just listen to today’s song. It begins with rhythatic clapping and you feel like tapping your feet to that tune. Many of his films were made by Roop K Shorey,featuring his wife Meena Shorey. Her bubbly movements on the screen added to the pleasure of the songs.

After Partition, when Roop K Shorey migrated to India from Lahore, he brought his entire team. Vinod and Lyricist Aziz Kashmiri were among them.

Original from Kashmir but sttled in Punjab, Aziz started his film career with Shorey’s Punjabi film HIMMAT-41. Later Aziz wrote songs in most of Shorey’s films in Lahore as well as Bombay.

His songs of Mirza Sahiban-47, Ek thi Ladki-49, Lahore-49, Dholak-51 and Ek do teen-53 became very popular. He is the one who wrote ” Lara lappa” song in Ek thi ladki-1949.

In 1966, he joined hands with O P Nayyar and together they did 10 films, giving some hit and popular songs. Along with O P Nayyar, Aziz Kashmiri also faded out. He wrote lyrics in about 50 Hindi films.

Composer Vinod was one of those artistes, who deserved much more than he got. In a short span of 13 years of career,he created some Gems,to be remembered for ever. A lot has been written about Vinod by many on his Biography, Filmography and songs. I am presenting here a part of an article on Vinod, by his composer friend SARDUL KWATRA. This is made available here,thanks to ‘Apnaorg’.—-

” Music Director Vinod’s real name was Eric Roberts, but for film industry he chose a more familiar and shorter name “Vinod”. This was revealed to me by one of his sons-in-law Kelly Mistry, who is married to his daughter Veera Roberts. His other daughter’s name is Veena Roberts (after marriage Veena Solomon).

Sardul was feeling very dejected about the plight of music director Vinod, who died at a young age and in poverty on the Christmas day in 1959. Sardul Kwatra knew Vinod since his days in Lahore and from a time when Sardul himself was a child, quite ignorant about his destiny. Vinod hailed from a Christian family of Lahore , who were converted from Hindus. Vinod had his family tree connected to Gurdaspur and Amritsar. As a child Vinod was fascinated by the band music which was prominently played during Lahore ’s colorful Hindu weddings. Vinod also listened carefully for hours to the Rababi musicians performing “Shabad Kirtan” at Gurdwara Dehra Sabib Lahore and other shrines. Sardul said Vinod became a student of Lahore ’s famous music director Pandit Amar Nath and learnt the fundamentals of ragas and tune making with the help of a harmonium from the great maestro. He started making tunes while being in Lahore prior to 1947 and after the death of Pandit Amar Nath, he got the contract of composing the music for a number of films including Punjabi film “Chaman”. But the film could not be taken up due to tense communal atmosphere in Lahore. It was made much later in India after 1947. Pushpa Hans and Shamshad Begum lent their voices to the songs in this film. Lata Mangeshkar was a new find, looking for work and Vinod gave her three songs to sing. Incidentally Lata’s all three numbers became landmark songs not only for this film, but for other Punjabi films to follow. Those were the days of extreme communal tension on both sides of the Radcliffe line in Punjab , as a consequence the film did not do well in Pakistani Punjab after its release. But the selling of its music even in Pakistan did quite a decent business.

According to some historians Vinod’s mentor Pandit Amar Nath died in 1946. Some other historians say that Pandit Amar Nath died in February of 1947. But by 1944 most of the Lahore based music directors like Khurshid Anwar (in 1941), Shyam Sunder (in 1943), Hans Raj Behl (in 1944) , Rashid Atre, Feroze Nizami, Ghulam Haider, Pandit Husna Lal Bhagat Ram shifted their base to Bombay. Pandit Amar Nath and Pandit Gobind Ram were the only ones left in Lahore. After Pandit Amar Nath’s health deteriorated in 1946, Vinod inherited some of his contracts. “Khamosh Nigahein”, “Paraye Bas Main” and “Kamini” were some of the movies which fell into Vinod’s kitty. None of these 1946 movies did well at the box office and Vinod did not get any mileage either.

Vinod got the best break in life in 1949, when he got the contract to compose the music for Hindi film “Ek Thi Ladki”. The film became a hit and its Lata song “Lara lappa lara lappa layi rakhda, addi tappa addi tappa layi rakhda” became a nation-wide hit. The tune of this song was based on an old Pahadi Punjabi folk tune of Kangra district. While listening to his other songs for this film, a similarity with the tunes of film “Mirza Sahiban” composed by his mentor Pandit Amar Nath could be clearly established. This goes to prove that Vinod, in letter and spirit, learnt the art of tune making from his teacher. This earned him contract for another Punjabi film “Bhaiya Ji” made in 1950. Lata sang several memorable songs for this movie. One of its sad songs “Ajj mera mahi nall tutt gaya pyar ve akhiyan na maar ve” was acclaimed to be a landmark song. Even Sardul Kwatra had a great admiration for this song. This song later on inspired the tunes of several Hindi songs. In 1949 Vinod composed music for another Hindi film “Taara”, which did not create any waves.

Talat Mahmood and Mohammad Rafi were the favourite male singers of Vinod, who always did full justice to his tunes. According to Sardul Kwatra Vinod had no God-father like Shanker and Jaikishan had in producer actor Raj Kapoor and producer Amiya Chakravarty and Naushad had in a very popular producer Mehboob Khan. Roop K. Shori, who gave Vinod music composition contracts for his films, somehow did not belong to the big league of Bombay based film producers like Sohrab Modi, K.A. Abbas, V. Shantaram, Mehboob Khan, Raj Kapoor etc.

Roop K. Shori of course was a very famous film producer in Lahore , who while moving to Bombay , took his entire team with him. Music director Vinod and lyricist Aziz Kashmiri were members of his group. Vinod composed the music for most of Roop K. Shori films. In all Vinod composed music for 27 Hindi films, out of which he shared music with other music directors in at least six films. Some of his films were not completed and some were not released even after completion. Among some of Vinod’s best known creations were the musical compositions of films “Anmol Ratan” (1950), “Wafaa” (1950) “Sabaz Bagh” (1951) “Aag ka Dariya” (1953), “Laadla” (1954) and “Makhi Choos” (1956). For a while Roop K. Shori got Vinod a salaried job as a music director in “Filmistan Studios”. One characteristic of Vinod was that in Punjabi films he inserted Hindi songs and in Hindi film songs he inserted some Punjabi wording. This trend was discontinued later on, but since the nineties once again Punjabi songs are becoming a part of most Hindi films and these songs are proving big hits.

According to Vonod’s son-in-law Kelly Mistry, Vinod was born on May 28, 1922. On an average Vinod was doing one or two successful films a year from 1948 to 1957, but one or two hit films in a year are not enough to ensure a decent standard of living in a city like Bombay . Husn Lal Bhagat Ram gave the music for 19 films in 1949 and 1950 and Shanker Jaikishan were composing the music for on the average 3 to 4 hit films every year during the fifties and sixties. Such busy schedules made both duos financially quite well off. O.P. Nayyar was also doing 3 to 4 successful films a year during the fifties, but somehow he did not manage his finances well. On the other hand Naushad was professionally quite creative and he always managed his finances well and lived in style.

Both Shyam Sunder and Vinod, in spite of being thoroughly professional, were never financially well off. They both died during the fifties. After Vinod’s untimely death at a young age of thirty seven on December 25, 1959, his wife Sheela had great difficulty in bringing up his children. Vinod loved his childhood city of Lahore and did not want to leave that great cultural centre, but the unfortunate partition of Punjab and the resultant bloodshed and its trauma left no option of going back to Lahore. Vinod was every inch a Punjabi and he longed to compose music for the Punjabi films, but after 1951 mostly two music directors ended up getting all the music direction contracts. They were Master Hans Raj Behl and Sardul Kwatra. Vinod composed music for only five Punjabi movies. These are “Chaman” (1948), “Bhaiya Jee” (1950), “Mitiar” (1950), “Ashtalli” (1954) and “Nikki” (1958). Vinod died a frustrated man, who’s professional genius was always shortchanged.

Although Vinod composed music for thirty two films, but most of these films were under small banners and the music of many were let down by the film’s poor showing at the box office. “